There are two large trophy cases inside the entrance to his
gym because one wouldn't hold all his state championship
trophies.

But after 12 state championships and 26 seasons as Scott
County Central's boys basketball coach, Ronnie Cookson's players
say he's not the same coach.

"He coached my dad and my uncles," junior Drew
Thomas said. "From the stories they were telling me and from
now what I can see, he got a little soft on us. Just a little
bit. He's hard on us, but not like the stories that he and my dad
told me. He just got old and he doesn't want to do all the stuff
he did in his older days."

That's about all that's changed, except a few more gray hairs.
The 63-year old Cookson led another Scott County team to a
familiar place — the state final four.

Scott County will face two-time defending state champion
Jefferson in a Class 1 state semifinal Thursday at 12:20 p.m. at
Mizzou Arena in Columbia. Cookson has his team two wins away from
his 13th state title at the school.

One of Cookson's favorite parts of the program is the link to
the past. He pointed out that Otto Porter played on his first
state championship team, and now Porter's son Otto is a freshman
on this year's squad.

"I've really enjoyed having some of the ancestors come
back," Cookson said. "It's just exciting for me. I've
got little Otto. The first state tournament we won, I had big
Otto. That's exciting just to think about it. I've got Bobby
Hatchett. His dad played for me on a state tournament team. Moon
Timmons, I've got his boy out here."

The family connections on the team help make Scott County a
special team. But it also adds a touch of confusion for Cookson.

klfy.com (KLFY-TV), Lafayette, Louisiana, 13 March 2008

Ville Platte High Student Paddled for Wearing Baggy Pants

A Ville Platte High School student claims he was paddled by
the Assistant Principal.

But that's only half of the story. Last month twelve year old
Robert Wilson was playing at school when his cousin fell on his
hip breaking it in half.

TV 10 spoke with Robert and his family who says the punishment
was too harsh for his fresh injury.

Robert has been home from Ville Platte High School for over
three weeks after an invasive hip surgery placed rods and screws
into his hip. For his first day back at school his mother bought
him large pants.

Robert's mother says she bought his pants big for school
because he has a cut on his leg. Robert says his baggy pants
got him into trouble, his teacher sent him to the principal to
deal with his pants."

"He put my hands on the locker and then he paddled
me" Robert says.

Robert's cousin, also a student at Ville Platte high school
says she saw the situation happen and tried to tell them about
his surgery. Robert says when he got home from school he was
still in pain.

Robert's mother says Robert reluctantly told her about
the paddling and she took him to the emergency room. That night
he was given pain medicine and was sent home. Roberts mother
called the school the next day and Mr. Bartley, the Principal
said he didn't know anything about it.

We called Ville Platte High School to confirm if the alleged
incidents took place. School Officials say they are aware of the
situation but wouldn't comment.

Multiple calls made to the School Board were not returned.
Mrs. Roberts is filling a Police report with the Evangeline
Parish Sheriff's Office first thing Thursday morning and
also has plans to meet with a lawyer early next week.

She was suspended for two days without pay and put on
probation for six months for spanking the child of a complainant
and threatening the child with a Taser.

About 30 or 40 years ago, some textbook psychologists (who
probably had never raised children) came up with the idea that
physical punishment would warp a child's psyche, make him hate
his parents and that he would become a child abuser with all
sorts of deleterious effects upon our society.

Very odd -- I am 84 years old, one of those who are lauded as
"The Greatest Generation." We survived the Depression.
We fought a war. We developed radar and computers. We pushed the
aviation, TV and other technical industries to incredible
heights. We launched a post-war period of economic growth longer
and stronger than any previous one in American history.

All of this was done by a generation that was routinely,
physically punished when we broke a rule or disobeyed parents,
teachers or police.

I doubt that most girls were so treated, but every boy I knew,
except one, received some form of physical punishment for
infractions. A belt across the bottom was common -- a switch from
a nearby tree -- a crack across the knuckles with a ruler in the
classroom.

What happened as a result of all this abuse? We learned to
respect authority; we learned to obey the rules. We also acquired
a good school education, since the classrooms were orderly and
quiet. We learned to be responsible citizens.

We became "The Greatest Generation."

We did not have a warped psyches. We did not hate our parents,
and we did not become child abusers. We had sense enough to know
that the punishment was the expected result of breaking a rule,
not from some sadistic streak in our parents.

Those parents knew that we would be better adults and better
off if we learned the results of misbehavior when the punishment
was trivial instead of what we would encounter as adults.

What sort of society do we have after 30 years of this
"no touch" system? Classroom discipline is poor to
nonexistent in most schools. Students attack teachers; education
levels have dropped steadily, till we sit at about No. 20 in the
Western world. Early alcohol and drug use are rampant. Fatal
accidents are alarmingly high in this unrestrained, undisciplined
generation of teenagers.

We are first in some areas, however. The United States has the
highest prison population per 100,000 of any country in the
world. That includes places like Cuba, Russia, China and a few
other places that we routinely look down on as repressive and
uncivilized.

Yes, there were cases of abuse and overly severe punishment --
and there still are -- but these did not cause any wrinkle in our
social order. They were aberrations and corrected when exposed.
This did not justify demolishing the lessons of literally
thousands of years of experience in child rearing.

Child abuse? I think the greatest abuse is to let a child grow
and not know the consequences of breaking the rule until he is
out in the big world with no parents to look after him.

I did not like the whippings I got, but I knew very well why
they happened and I harbored no resentment (well, maybe until
suppertime.) And I thank my parents for teaching me right from
wrong and the consequences of breaking the rules.